Do solar panels increase home value?

Yes, if you own the system. Buyers treat a paid-off solar array the same way they treat a new roof or boiler: it cuts a recurring bill, so they fold part of that saving into the offer. A leased array hands the buyer a third-party contract instead, and they pay close to nothing extra for that. That single distinction drives most of what follows.

What the research actually found

A 2019 Zillow study looked at US home sales from March 2018 to February 2019 and found that houses with solar sold for 4.1% more than comparable houses without it. On the median US home at the time, that translated to roughly $9,274 extra (a US study). Reporters quote that number constantly, and usually quote it badly.

Three caveats stand out. The premium applied to owned systems, not leased ones. It varied by metro: sunny, high-tariff markets rewarded solar far more than cheap-power markets did. And the data is now seven years old, predating the electricity price rises that have reshaped the maths in most countries.

A 2025 SolarReviews study replicated the method on 400+ US homes and found a premium closer to 6.9%, consistent with a world where energy costs more and buyers price that in. The sample was smaller than the original Zillow dataset, so treat both figures as signposts rather than guarantees.

For the UK, a Swansea University and University of Birmingham study published in 2024 analysed roughly five million Zoopla listings against Land Registry transaction data and found a premium of 6.1%–7.1%, equivalent to £14,000–£16,000 on a typical UK home.

Why owned beats leased by so much

A buyer values your array the way they value any capital improvement that cuts a recurring cost. The logic only holds when the panels come with the house, free and clear.

Lease a system and you hand the buyer a different object: monthly payments to a third party, a transfer process, and a credit check before they can complete. Plenty of buyers walk rather than untangle it. The appraiser, meanwhile, cannot count equipment you don't own as part of the property. A lease that saved you money each month tends to add little or nothing at sale, and it can slow the sale down.

If you want the resale bump, ownership matters more than which panels you picked.

What moves the premium up or down

The premium is not a fixed percentage. It tracks the economics of a specific roof in a specific market.

Factor	Higher premium	Lower premium
Sunlight	Southern Spain, Queensland	Scotland, northern Germany
Grid electricity price	High tariff (UK, Germany, Australia)	Low tariff (Texas, parts of France)
Export / net-metering rules	Generous, retail-rate export	Avoided-cost net billing or no export

A single national average gives a misleading picture. Any honest "solar adds X%" claim is local, and it tracks the economics of the specific roof.

What buyers and valuers look for

A few practical things separate an array that adds value from one that complicates a sale.

Ownership documents. Proof the system is paid off, plus the original invoice and any warranty transfer.
Performance records. A year or two of generation data tells a buyer the array works and roughly what it saves.
System age and warranty. Panels degrade slowly, but a 15-year-old array with an expired inverter warranty asks the buyer to budget for a replacement.
Clean installation. Tidy wiring, proper roof fixings, and sign-off paperwork reassure a surveyor.
Energy rating. In the UK, solar improves a home's EPC band by one grade. Rightmove research in 2023 found that moving from a D to a C rating added around 3% to sale price, roughly £11,000 on the average UK home. Across the EU, a higher energy rating similarly supports a higher valuation.

Get those in order before you list. A buyer who can verify the saving will pay for it; one who can't will discount it.

How to estimate the value for your own home

Skip the national percentage and work from the bottom up. Start with what your array saves or earns each year: local sunshine hours (from PVGIS), your current import tariff, and your export rate. A buyer is, roughly, paying for some share of those future savings. A system that cuts your bill by 30% a year is worth more at sale than one saving 10%, before you reach the headline percentages.

That annual saving figure also tells you whether the system has paid for itself yet. If you are still inside the payback period, part of the resale premium simply returns capital you have already sunk. If the array is paid off and still generating, the premium is closer to pure upside.

We run our calculator on open government data (PVGIS and NASA NREL) rather than asking you for a contact form first. You get an honest payback, NPV, and IRR for your address, with a ballpark figure before anyone calls you. Most sites gate the number behind your phone number; we don't.

For a deeper look at whether the whole investment stacks up, see Is solar worth it in 2026? or How much do solar panels cost?.

Frequently asked questions

Do solar panels always increase home value? In most markets, yes, but only for owned systems. The premium depends on local electricity prices, sunlight, and export rules. In high-tariff, sunny markets the uplift is well-documented; in low-tariff markets it is smaller and less consistent.

Does a leased solar system add value to my home? Rarely. A lease transfers a third-party contract to the buyer, which many buyers want to avoid. Appraisers cannot count leased equipment as part of the property, so the sale price uplift is typically close to zero, and the lease can slow the sale.

How much did the Zillow study find solar adds to home value? Zillow's 2019 analysis of US sales from 2018–19 found homes with solar sold for 4.1% more, translating to roughly $9,274 on the median-priced home at the time (a US study). A 2025 SolarReviews replication of 400+ homes found a higher figure of around 6.9%, consistent with rising energy costs since the original study.

Do solar panels improve my EPC rating in the UK? Yes. A typical residential system moves a home up by one EPC band (commonly from D to C). Rightmove research in 2023 found that D-to-C improvement adds around 3% to sale price, roughly £11,000 on the average UK home.

How do I estimate the resale value of my specific system? Work from the annual saving first: multiply your roof's annual output (kWh) by your import tariff, then add any export income. That figure tells you the economic case a buyer is pricing. Our free calculator does this for your address using PVGIS climate data, with no contact form required.

So the answer holds: owned solar adds real value, the amount depends on your roof and your market, and the clearest way to know yours is to run the numbers on your own house.

Estimate your roof →

Estimate only, not a quote. Figures use local climate data and average tariffs; your installer's quote will be exact.